Asbestos management inspections of schools by the HSE
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are planning to carry out further inspections of schools across Britain in the 2023-24 academic year in order to assess the effectiveness of their asbestos management.
They undertook 421 such inspections in schools across Great Britain last year and those showed that most schools were complying with their legal duties. The report on their findings is available:
HSE.Gov.UK: Management of asbestos in school buildings 2022/23
An asbestos management checklist for schools is available on the Grid to provide assurance that the required controls are in place:
Most of the failings previously identified by the HSE related to improvements required in asbestos management plans or surveys.
Areas identified for improvement included:
- schools not having an up-to-date survey on site.
- lack of clarity over any areas not surveyed (which should be presumed to contain asbestos). • not clearly indicating if remedial actions had been completed and records updated.
- not having a clear and easily understandable asbestos management plan in place specific to their site.
- schools not regularly monitoring the condition of asbestos-containing materials.
- a lack of incident procedures for dealing with an unplanned disturbance of asbestos-containing materials.
- schools not ensuring that contractors tendering for work provide risk assessments, method statements, and evidence of asbestos awareness training.
If you have any queries, require any further support, or are selected for inspection by the HSE then contact me or the H&S team healthandsafety@hertfordshire.gov.uk